She held my hand as we strolled along the mansions edge, enjoying the sunlight. It was warming, even through the crisp, cold breeze that blew between us as we passed near the pavilion. Every time she shuddered, I pulled her closer to me. My protective nature had never been so involved with her before. I guess, I was just seeing things differently now. Either that, or it was the fact that everyone that we passed, eyed her slender beauty.

I knew that having unwillingly changed her, she would succumb to the increased metabolism. She burned calories like her body had become an inferno, melting every flaw away from her. Blemishes would never surface on her skin, sickness would never befall her, and her skin would always radiate it's beauty as a wild beacon. That last thing always had me on edge.

She'd always get the stares of the other male werewolves. And every time I noticed, she gripped my hand to keep me calm. "There's no contest between you and them." She would whisper as we continued our walk.

The men were all like me, built for their body types. Big men were muscly, small men were slender and quick. What ever our body deemed perfect, became reality, whether we liked it or not. At least they weren't. My body had already defined the woman who clung to me, as the neigh sayer. And being that neither of us could keep our thoughts too our selves, it made things much easier too deal with.

"Look at the kids!" Angela squealed. I hadn't noticed them at first. Children were always a hot topic for me, and I really didn't think of them as the little bundles of joy everyone played them out to be.

There were more than a dozen kids, mostly around ten years old, running around playing a very big game of tag. Until Angela squealed. They all seemed to stop. And that's when I saw it. All of their eyes were dark, and cobalt blue. I felt as though if the sun weren't up, their eyes would look like a bright-light set, off in the distance.

A sudden sickness threatened to me to turn her away from them. And when she heard me thinking about it, she turned he towards her. "They aren't monsters, Michael." She said under her breath. "They're just half-... us, and half-human."

I didn't buy it. "My eyes were green when I was a child." I said. Were... I didn't like the fact that because of our appetites, our eyes were permanently blue. Sure they looked gorgeous on her, but to me, that meant something else. I began to wish I didn't care what other people think.

"Michael," She said, sliding her hands up to my cheeks, "You're different. Marcus told me so."

Huh. Marcus. The second father figure in my life who I hated at first, then to my dismay found that I couldn't hate him if I tried. This trend had to stop before I lost my mind! "He says that trait is just because of your family."

I shrugged it off. "It's still creepy," I mumbled, smiling at her, then looking at the children, "Especially when they keep looking at us."

She hadn't even noticed. And her sudden realization that I was right made me laugh aloud. "Stop that!" She said hitting me in the chest. Her feigned anger. I loved her that way. "And I love you when you're not digging around in my head!"

"Hey, you got to toy with my thoughts all you want when I was normal."

"We, when we where normal." She said, pulling me along so we could walk some more. Her hand was warm in mine, even through the steadily dropping temperature.

"So," She said changing the subject. "When do you think my new house will be fixed?" She asked, that little tone that said, 'I won the lottery' was enough to make me shake my head. She was such a card...

"Your house?"

"I think you owe me for the worry you put me through, Michael Chalk!" She argued. "You had me thinking you were a crazy person! I couldn't even hear your thoughts, there were so many jumbling around at once. Of Emily, her dad, images of that awful camp, every little picture had a slew of thought processes to choke down with it..." She trailed off. "It was scary..."

I frowned. "I'm sorry."

"Now don't you start taking the blame for something as terrible as what happened to your dad! That wasn't your fault!" She said. Her anger felt like it had been released into my hand that she carried. I'd wondered what it would do when it reached my brain. But it was a quick though, something I was glad she didn't catch.

"Okay." I falsely agreed.

"I know when you're just trying to make me feel better, Michael." She said, looking up at me with her smile. That beautiful, full smile. "I love it when you say I'm beautiful." She replied.

"So it's okay for you to constantly read my thoughts?" I argued with her.

"Of course. I'm the girl." She said in her cutesy voice. It was a mock cheerleader voice, and it always made me smile when she talked like that.

"You got that right." I said, taking advantage of her usage of the word 'girl.' Before the thought could be read, I looked her in the face, waiting for the pre-attack shock. And when it came, she gasped.

I ran away from her laughing.

"Michael Chalk, you better run!" She yelled as she sprinted for me.

I hadn't been running as fast as I should have. And that much became apparent when I looked back too see her within an arms length of me. I made some weird noise that seemed like a mix of surprise and fear. And as I went to turn back to the path I'd chosen to flee too, an inconvenient bench found my shins, and I went sailing forward.

Struggling to get back on my feet, I turned and backed away like a backwards crab. She jumped and landed on my stomach.

"Oof!"

"That's what you get!" She said.

My arms were pinned and she sat above my legs, so there was no getting out of this without hurting her. All I could do was laugh, and it seemed the same for her. As she relaxed and sat up on my stomach, she swiped her long, black hair away from her eyes. That shining coal black hair was like silk around her face. I was suddenly in awe by her. And she noticed. "You're so, unbelievably beautiful." I said.

She merely rolled her eyes and fell to my side. The both of us were staring up into the sky.

"Oh!" She said as a sharp thought seemed to spike it's way over too me. I jumped. "Have you noticed it yet?" She asked.

"I've been underground in a cell for the past two days." I said. "What was there too notice?"

She leant up and smiled. Putting her hands over my eyes, she forced me to ask what she was doing. "Just relax, and smell the air." She instructed.

I did. And the unimaginable scents that filled my senses... felt like perfection. The scents of our kind were separated when there was only a few of us. It was a great advantage when hunting. But here, where werewolves were no longer the minority, they were united. And together, it smelt like home.

Home. It was all I could think of when the smell of them all hit my nose. And it wasn't my physical home either... I felt like, I belonged here. There was no way to explain it at the time though. So when my thoughts started to jumble together, I was at a loss of words.

Every sense has it's climax. Hearing the most beautiful voice. Tasting the greatest foods. Looking out from the top of Mount Everest. The touch of someone you love. Then there was smell. This was it's climax. The serenity, was the most beautiful thing I'd ever taken it. And the whole time, I couldn't believe what I saw with my eyes closed.

"It's perfect here." I mumbled.

"Yeah." She mused in a slight daze. I was buzzing off the smell. Like a sweet coax into a docile euphoria.

We lay there next to each other, smiling, and taking in the scent like it was white wine. Until she spoke.

"I want kids one day."

"Not this again." I groaned. My eyes were still closed when she hit me in the ribs.

"Don't knock my dreams."

"Sorry." I said laughing.

"..."

"..."

"So... when do you wanna give me a few?"

I sat up a little bewildered. "A few?"

"Don't look at me like that. I just want a few. Like... five."

I had to double-take her. "Fi-Five?!" I was hoping around two, or three. Four was out of the question, and five would kill us both! I was sure my shock was what was making her laugh now, because it surely wasn't the smell in the air.

But when she slowly opened her eyes to look up at me, those big blues, I couldn't help but feel exactly what she felt. Completeness.

"I guess I can survive with five." I said, stroking the side of her naturally pale face. Then I thought for a second. "But I want too look at least twenty-something when we start."

The thought of what people would think when they saw someone like me toting around a few children a fourth of my age, didn't seem right. I knew if we started now, by the time they were five, I'd still look eighteen. And I wasn't ready for that. I don't think anyone in their right mind was. And that included my love.

She hit me again, and slyly got up and ran. I guess the tables were turned.